Nurses' struggle to attain educational parity with other professional groups is closely aligned with the struggle of women for social equality within Canadian institutions. The attempts of nursing educators to shift their perspective from social reform to educational reform and to develop nursing scholarship has been restricted by the cultural views of women. Consequently, nurses' gains in attaining higher education have been realized by reforms in social and health care policies thought suitable for women. With advancement in university nursing education closely tied to social reform, nurses were not expected, nor did they expect, to pursue scholarly enquiry or develop research endeavours. This paper suggests that the feminist movement offers nurses a social and psychological basis from which to complete the educational reform of nursing.

The ultimate outcomes of hospital retrenchment for the RN workforce remain unclear. Some speculate that the quality of care and working conditions will deteriorate in hospitals, as hospital administrators replace RN staff with lesser trained personnel to reduce costs. Others see change in the hospital sector as an opportunity for RNs to expand their scope of practice and responsibility in outpatient settings. The need for national and international research on the outcomes of hospital restructuring on patient care and the work of RNs is critical to sound policy making.

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